I'm calling this an alien, a big headed aloe vera...

I've always loved succulents, mostly because they are so architecturally beautiful. A little because I think they are aliens from another planet. How else do you explain ice plant and it's ability to take over any landscape?

Trust me, they're just biding their time until the invasion. Hopefully, since I take such good care of them, they express their love for me in flowers, I will not be one of the many taken into slavery and then cracked open to help soothe their sunburns.

Afternoon in the Garden of Color and Insanity

 

This weekend, John built us a raised garden bed for us to plant vegetables. I've selected a sort of salad bar concept for the vegetables, i.e. tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, bell peppers, onions, etc...

But before we could buy the plants, John hopped out of town and there is no way I'm planting anything without a second party present. 

1. Too hot. I need time to see where the sun is over the bed during the day.

2. I have no idea if things should go together or be faaaaar apaaaaart...

3. That's a lot of money to spend without coming out of it with new shoes.

So I ended up buying some thyme (that works on two levels), and some other cool succulents I found. 

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that my garden and backyard are a work in progress and most likely this will always be so. But in vignettes, it's pretty.  So here are a few I noticed today:

 

This last one is a plant that Beckett selected at the nursery. He just sort of grabbed something and said, "Here, Mom!" But it turns out it's the perfect foil for all the green and bright colors everywhere else.